Mindy Finkelstein
On August 10, 1999, I was a carefree sixteen-year-old working as a counselor at a day camp. I could never have anticipated what would happen that day and I will never forget the details of that morning. At 9:45 AM a self-proclaimed Neo-Nazi walked into the North Valley Jewish Community Center (outside Los Angeles) and shot over 70 rounds of ammunition. I was shot, along with four others (including three children). … More »
Israel’s Arms
Yossi Melman
On the one hand Israel is asking the world to take into consideration its security needs. On the other hand Israel itself shows no consideration of other nations’ concerns. Israel preaches morality, values, and ideals, and it portrays itself as the only democracy in the Middle East. Yet behind the scenes it is involved in murky and dubious arms deals. … More »
Guns, Gun Control, and American Jews
Tom Diaz
What do Jews in America think about guns and gun control? The question reflects our broad sociopolitical spectrum. And it is talmudic; an exquisitely ambiguous Second Amendment text demands explication. The obvious answers turn out to be touchstones for more questions. … More »
Arms for Images
American Jews like their guns at a distance. Despite the participation of Jewish soldiers in each of America’s wars — going back to 1776 — it wasn’t until 1948 that Jews finally found guns that fit them, culturally speaking. But there was one catch: Those guns were in Israel. … More »
A Journey into the Ethics of Kashrut
Dyonna Ginsburg
Although I had been involved in many social justice ventures before, it wasn’t until I switched my eating habits that my entire outlook shifted. All of a sudden, I saw things that I had not seen before and became sensitive to the suffering of people whom I had previously ignored. … More »
Living with the “Arational”
Amitai Adler
I am a rather studious rabbinical student — with a bent for halakhah — at a Conservative movement seminary. But I believe in magic. I believe in angels and in demons. I believe in a universe of both the seen and the unseen. I believe in the ability of human beings to see the unseen. And I believe I have caught glimpses of it. There. Now you know my secret. … More »
Firearm-Related Injuries and Deaths
Les Fisher The U.S. is the most highly armed country in the world. There are 90 guns for every 100 citizens, according to 2007 figures from the Small Arms Survey; in the rest of the world, the rate is ten firearms for every 100 citizens. The U.S. rate of lethal violence is correspondingly higher than … More »
The Fading Faith of a Jewish Moral Exceptionalist
David N. Myers Writing a few years after the creation of the State of Israel, the Jewish thinker Simon Rawidowicz asserted that the age-old “Jewish question” had become the “Arab question.” Jews were no longer a minority seeking to survive in the face of an often hostile host. They had assumed sovereignty in 1948, and … More »
A Canadian Perspective on Gun Control
Miriam Kramer and Aaron Levy In the three years since we moved from New York to Toronto, we’ve been asked countless times, in all seriousness: “Isn’t it dangerous in the United States?” We laugh each time at the seeming absurdity, the way our Canadian colleagues relate to America with the same fear that Americans usually … More »